Our Position Regarding Asahi Shimbun's Response

TOKYO, Feb. 18, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In our "Request to Asahi Shimbun Reporter" of February 13, 2013, we requested the involved reporter to show us provenance and authenticity of the "Board of Directors Resolution" no later than February 15, 2013.

In the February 8th morning edition of the Asahi Shimbun, a report appeared on the first and the third pages regarding the transfer of US$40 million in connection with our Company's Philippine business. It was reported that a Board of Directors' resolution states that "resolve to agree and approve the payment of this expense" and is signed by Kazuo Okada, Chairman of the Board of Universal Entertainment Corporation, who also serves as Director of Aruze USA, and by Tomohiro Okada, Director of Universal Entertainment Corporation. However, no such document titled "Board of Directors' Resolution," the ground of such allegations, and which would not be used by companies in general, exists as an official document in our corporate group. We filed the above request in view of the need to immediately verify the facts.

In the first place, this verification was made doubly necessary because of the surfacing of evidence showing mysterious e-mail communication with a member of our administration staff through which our employee Mr. N had directed the preparation of a document contrary to the facts.

In response to our Company's request for submission of these internal documents, Asahi Shimbun on February 15 rejected our request citing its responsibility as a news organization to protect information sources. In addition, Asahi Shimbun not only declined to identify the source of information but also failed to provide a copy of the "Board of Directors' Resolution".

We are fully aware of a news organization's responsibility to protect information sources and are not in any way asking it to abandon such an important responsibility. According to Asahi Shimbun, since the document in question is our classified material, it is unlikely that someone's secret or privacy will be violated even if the document is disclosed to us and that there are no reasons to prevent the concerned "Board of Directors' Resolution" being disclosed to our Company.